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Iluvatar · 03-01-2003, 11:52 AM

It always amazes me how much Molly and I think alike but perhaps that's explainable since we had similar mentors way back when as little Imms.

Realism can often be a double-edged sword and a balance between "fun" and "abusive" needs to be found. For example, we increased combat damage received by equipment in an effort to cause decay which leads to eventually require revisiting old haunts to replace stuff. Realistically, how much damage should different materials take? It took us a few tries, but we finally found a reasonable medium that both the Imms and the Morts could deal with. Moral of the story is it's good to try stuff BUT do it slowly over time and watch reactions. The reactions of your players dictate if you're going too fast or being too harsh and removing the "fun" element.

Like Molly, I also find realism in the world environment a crucial piece of building expertise. Our goal is a truly round world complete with poles, multiple continents, oceans, ecosystems, climate etc PLUS a relative interaction between adjacent zones. I'ts simply not acceptable to me to trek from desert to ice to jungle all in a group of 300 rooms. It's also not reasonable to have a "cloud-touching" spire 50 rooms east of a mountaintop and not be seen from the mountain or vice versa. This certainly is a hassle for all the senior builders but the payoffs in the long run are great. Good mapping and discussion usually solve most issues and keeps everybody with the same goals. Anything and everything you can do to make the environment realistic and contextually accurate amazes and impresses the players to the point of telling friends and exploring more. Cost? Builders must plan, must research and must explore routinely and comply to get published. Reward? An awesome building team proud of their work.

03-01-2003, 11:52 AM	#17
Iluvatar Member Join Date: May 2002 Location: Mississippi USA Posts: 142	It always amazes me how much Molly and I think alike but perhaps that's explainable since we had similar mentors way back when as little Imms. Realism can often be a double-edged sword and a balance between "fun" and "abusive" needs to be found. For example, we increased combat damage received by equipment in an effort to cause decay which leads to eventually require revisiting old haunts to replace stuff. Realistically, how much damage should different materials take? It took us a few tries, but we finally found a reasonable medium that both the Imms and the Morts could deal with. Moral of the story is it's good to try stuff BUT do it slowly over time and watch reactions. The reactions of your players dictate if you're going too fast or being too harsh and removing the "fun" element. Like Molly, I also find realism in the world environment a crucial piece of building expertise. Our goal is a truly round world complete with poles, multiple continents, oceans, ecosystems, climate etc PLUS a relative interaction between adjacent zones. I'ts simply not acceptable to me to trek from desert to ice to jungle all in a group of 300 rooms. It's also not reasonable to have a "cloud-touching" spire 50 rooms east of a mountaintop and not be seen from the mountain or vice versa. This certainly is a hassle for all the senior builders but the payoffs in the long run are great. Good mapping and discussion usually solve most issues and keeps everybody with the same goals. Anything and everything you can do to make the environment realistic and contextually accurate amazes and impresses the players to the point of telling friends and exploring more. Cost? Builders must plan, must research and must explore routinely and comply to get published. Reward? An awesome building team proud of their work.